Cohabitation
by Gabi Howard
Summary: Maybe an eternity here wouldn't be so bad after all...


**Cohabitation**

-

_Author's Note: This was inspired by a posting on the now-sleeping LifeNoteClub's Valentine's Day contest where entrants picked any pairing they wanted, so long as it was LightxDeath Note character. One was LightxLidner, which made me wtf at first, but after thinking about it, I reckon it might just work, were they not Kira and a rather vengeful SPK member. It was originally intended as another Circumlocution chapter, but grew into its own little monster. Enjoy!  
_

-

It's dark. She knows it is- even though daylight is shining on the wall in front of her, if she turns her head just a little, she sees the lack of any form of light behind. It's only her head she can turn, though, and the invisible force acting on the rest of her is starting to unnerve her. She can't move backwards either, or to the side. The only way she can go is forwards, through the door ahead.

It isn't that it's a very threatening door- quite the contrary, in fact. It's a simple front door, almost dull in its normality, but it's the fact that she's being forced to go through it that's giving her a bad feeling about the whole experience. Well, that and the fact that she appeared here right after having a gun aimed at her in the middle of a gang war, but that goes without saying.

Eventually, though, she gets tired of standing in one place. Boredom, and perhaps a little curiosity, wins out over fear and she takes a step forward. The door is unlocked, and swings open easily to reveal what turns out to be just an ordinary hallway, which she enters as the door swings shut behind her.

The place isn't the prettiest on earth, certainly. It's decorated in earth tones, with only two doors aside from the one behind her leading off it. Upstairs, though, there looks like there's a few more, but the house can hardly be a big one.

Something moves in the room on her left. She's instantly alert, tensing her body as she tiptoes forwards towards the door. Before she reaches it, however, a person steps through, carrying a steaming mug of coffee.

The last person she'd expected, or had ever wanted to see again.

"You!" She hisses, putting her hand to the place where her gun normally is. It isn't there now, and Light Yagami merely raises a sardonic eyebrow in response to the greeting.

"Halle Lidner. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Not long enough."

He snorts. "Cliché, Halle. I'd have expected better of you, being on the SPK and all." He wanders past her into the room on the right, a lounge, where he settles himself on the sofa.

Halle finds herself caught off guard by his... well, hardly geniality, but this is a far cry from the Kira she saw at the warehouse. Unless it's all an act of course and, mental breakdown notwithstanding, she wouldn't put it past him.

She doesn't like this. Not at all. She turns to the door.

"Don't bother. You can't get out." His voice is almost lazy. She spins round on her heel, but her defiant glare is met only by the back of his head.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Would I still be here if I could leave, do you think?" he turns now, draping an arm across the back of the sofa as he meets her gaze squarely.

_Well, he does have a point..._ Halle shakes away the irritating voice at the back of her mind as she tries the door, which turns out to be locked. "Fuck."

"That was my reaction."

"If you dare say 'I told you so', then God help me..."

He laughed at that. "Don't you think that's a little ironic, given who I am?" Halle purses her lips, slightly disgusted.

"Don't tell me you still think that way. A God wouldn't..."

"...have done a lot of things I did while I was alive, I know." He sighs and turns back to the TV. "Don't worry. My God complex died when I did, and I don't think it got an afterlife."

"Good riddance."

"Probably." He shifts again, and for the first time in her life (or lack thereof), Halle doesn't know how to respond. "The spare room's upstairs, on the right. I hope you don't mind the lack of choice, but I thought I might as well get myself settled in."

"...that's fine."

-

The rooms are bland, and after a brief exploration of the house (which ultimately uncovers nothing but a series of useless would-be escape routes), she returns and stands in hers for a while, unwilling to return to the living room and the one-time-mass murderer sitting there.

Eventually, though, she gets bored of sitting on the bed. There'd been a stove of some kind in the kitchen, and she'd seen Light with his coffee earlier. It seemed that even in the afterlife their caffeine addictions have held up, and hers is calling her downstairs.

When she gets to the kitchen, though, there's already a mug waiting for her. She blinks. Do things here just appear when you want them, or...?

"It's yours, if you want it." The voice, coming from less than a metre away, makes her jump. She turns to see Light standing in the doorway. "And no, it didn't appear from nowhere, if that's what you're thinking. Basic laws of physics apply here, just like they did before."

"Right." She picks up the coffee, staring at the black liquid in silence until he leaves. She sniffs it suspiciously, and there seems to be nothing abnormal about it, but when she thinks he can't hear, she pours it down the sink (and it might be her imagination, but she could swear she catches a small chuckle as the mug empties).

After all, you never can tell.

-

The next few days are torture. There's nothing to do except read thick, ancient books or watch TV, and Halle's going stir crazy. She's taken to running up and down stairs, occasionally running into rooms and stopping as she realises there is absolutely no point to it all. But she doesn't really care, because it means there's something to do, some form of exercise, even if it only lasts for a few moments.

Light seems perfectly content with what little entertainment the house offers. No running to nowhere for him (although she has seen him pacing frantically when he doesn't think she's around), although she's not too surprised when he tells her he's read most of the books on the dusty shelves. He cleans, too- something she'd never expected to see a man do voluntarily. Had it been anyone other than him, she would likely have teased them to death for it (no pun intended, of course).

One day, he tells her about his 'practice' at having nothing to do- the way he'd always have to wait for his classes to finish work he'd do in minutes; the time when he was shackled and confined for almost two months in a dark, filthy cellar; the times when L refused to allow him anywhere near anything entertaining because he was pissed off with him and all the times Misa just clung onto his arm and wouldn't let go.

After that, his patience doesn't seem quite so surprising any more.

-

She's trying to cook breakfast- a simple thing really, pancakes, fried eggs and sausage. With no field work to do in the foreseeable future (if not forever), she's decided she's allowed a few treats.

Of course, she burns it. Murphy's Law combined with her total lack of cooking skills results in a rather spectacular burning episode, and it's only when Light comes in, alerted to the disaster by the thick smoke that's now hovering throughout the house, that the fire's got under control. Top agent Halle may be, but when it comes to all things domestic, she prefers leaving it to those more adept (unless of course the adept's Yagami). He shoos her out, and she does her best to get rid of the smoke while he returns the stove to a usable state.

When she returns, a plate of pancakes, fried eggs and sausage is sitting on the table. Light is nowhere to be seen, but the shower's running and the kitchen's spotless, with some heavy-duty cleaning materials sitting next to the counter. A note placed beside the food tells her in a somewhat knowing tone that none of the stuff's in her food. Realising she's not going to eat much any other way (there's no toaster or microwave, annoyingly enough), she resigns herself to her fate and discovers that the food's actually not all that bad (and there wasn't any bleach in it after all).

-

"So how was it?"

"I'm sorry?"

It's a rare evening, one where they're sitting together on the sofa instead of actively avoiding each other. The TV's playing, showing a generic documentary on something neither of them really care about (and Light probably knows about already). Halle's as bored as ever, and curious. Light's changed. It's obvious, and a little unsettling, although she definitely prefers this sane, rational human being to the raving lunatic she met in Yellowbox. "Your death."

"Ah." He frowns, curling up slightly. His eyes are haunted, and for a brief moment Halle finds herself feeling almost guilty, though she'd never admit it. It hadn't been a pretty end, after all. He doesn't reply for a while, and she's about to give up on an answer when he finally continues. "Surprisingly painless, actually. I'd lost so much blood by that point I was mostly numb. Running all that way probably wasn't the best of ideas, but... you saw how desperate I was."

"Mm." She isn't likely to forget that little display of theatrics, that was for sure. The entire Japanese Taskforce had gone in for counselling, and last she'd heard, the one who'd shot Light hadn't stopped going yet. "Wasn't exactly the most dignified way to go."

"No, it wasn't." He agrees, looking slightly pained, and they lapse back into silence again until he asks: "So how was it for you?"

"My death?"

"Yes."

She shrugs. "Dunno. It was pretty sudden- a hostage situation got nasty, and in the midst of it I was shot in the head. At least, I think I was. I died instantly, so there's no way to tell."

"At least you kept your composure. That's something."

"Yes. Yes, it is."

-

A few weeks later, a thunderstorm finds her cowering under the duvet. Halle Bullook, top CIA/FBI agent, who's faced down one of the worst killers in human history, is scared stiff. She always has been- ever since she was a child, the roar of something beyond her control has frightened her. After a particularly loud crash shakes the house itself, she decides that maybe her bed isn't the safest place to be. With her duvet curled round her so she looks like some bizarre armadillo relative, she scurries out of her room, bounces off the wall opposite the door and heads for the lounge, where she huddles on the sofa.

The sound is deafening, and she fails to hear soft footsteps padding down the stairs behind her. They stop as Light regards her for a moment, but she doesn't notice the new presence until he sits beside her, as close as the duvet will allow. She starts when she first sees him (a reflex action brought about by the Kira case), but relaxes a little as he does nothing further. He's not even looking at her, but at the switched-off TV screen.

They sit like this for a while, Halle quivering whilse Light looks as collected as she's ever seen him. A small part of her mind that isn't scared is highly embarrassed, disgusted with herself for revealing this weakness, while the rest is somewhat glad of the company.

The biggest thunderclap yet sends her leaping up with a yelp. The duvet falls to the floor and she curls in on herself, too terrified to move. When an arm is placed across her shoulders, she leans into its owner, forgetting for a minute who it is. The hand on her shoulder moves to rub soothing circles on her back, and a voice murmurs something in her ear until she's calmed down.

She then notices who exactly it is semi-hugging her, and extricates herself. The pair stare at each other for a moment, then Halle breaks the (sort of) silence.

"I'd have castrated you for that a few days ago."

He laughs and gets up, heading for the stairs as he calls over his shoulder "Then it's a good thing this isn't a few days ago, isn't it?"

-

She doesn't sleep a wink until the storm stops, by which point it's nearly morning. She still manages to sleep for only a few hours though, and wakes up with a splitting headache to find Light sitting by her bed with aspirin and a glass of water, which he holds out to her. As she sits up, she spots the mug of hot chocolate on the bedside table.

"I know you prefer coffee, but you need sleep more." Light explains as he leaves.

Her mildly grateful thoughts become a little less pleasant when she realises he's given her sleeping pills instead of aspirin, but by then she's feeling far too tired to do anything about it. This time, though, she sleeps until evening, wakes up refreshed and headache-free, and any wish to rant at Light vanishes as she pokes her head round his door to find him fast asleep in bed and looking utterly _adorable_. Instead, she finds a blanket to drape over him and resigns herself to reading for the rest of the night.

-

"Morning," She greets him when he finally wakes up.

"Mhm." Is Light's intellectual response (he's never at his best in the mornings, she's found).

"I made you breakfast."

That wakes him up. "You what?"

"I said I made you breakfast. It's not all carbon... well, I don't think it is, at any rate."

"With cooking skills like yours, I think that needs a second opinion." He comments, pushing away the blanket. He still looks rather sweet- his clothes rumpled by sleep and half-hanging off him while his tousled hair gets in his eyes. Halle leans over and tucks a clump of it behind his ear. He stops moving for a moment, looks up at her. "That's the first time you've ever touched me of your own volition."

"Yes, well. You going to eat that breakfast, or is it going to go to waste?"

He shrugs and leaves. Halle lounges on the sofa for a while, watching a generic 'Tom & Jerry' episode that always seems to be on about this time of day until she gets bored and goes to follow Light into the kitchen.

The breakfast she made for him is nowhere to be seen, but the clean plate on the dishwasher rack with no cutlery beside it tells the story pretty well, as does the fact that Light's standing at the stove, cooking sausages.

"I'm hurt." she announces, leaning against the doorframe. "I slaved over that, I'll have you know."

He rolls his eyes. "I'm sure. Want some?"

"Sure, why not?" she jumps up onto the counter beside him and watches for a while. "So how did you get so good at cooking?"

"What, you don't believe this is one of my natural talents?" He grins. "Actually, if you lived with L- the original one- there was a choice: you either learnt how to cook, or get endless cavities and cholesterol, or starve."

"So which option was worse?" Asks Halle, poking her tongue out at him when he scowls at the comment. Light returns the gesture, and it's so juvenile, so out of place on him that she can't help but giggle. He joins in, and soon they're both laughing. It has to be said, when he's not going insane, it's actually quite a nice sound.

The moment is broken when a sausage decides to make its presence known, and a blob of fat spits out and hits Light on the hand. He gives a surprisingly high-pitched yelp before running to the sink and turning the tap on. Halle just laughs even more at the sound, almost falling off the counter.

"'S not funny." He complains. Halle grins.

"It is from where I'm sitting. Want me to finish this off?" She indicates the food still cooking with a grin, and his eyes widen.

"No! No," he explains as he makes a hurried return to the stove. "I think you've pushed your luck far enough today with the meal earlier- another house fire isn't something I'd really want to have happen, would you?"

"Spoilsport." She jokes, hopping down from the counter. He grins back this time.

"But you love me."

"Maybe..." _Actually, come to think of it... _On an impulse, she leans over and gives him a quick peck on the cheek. The red blush that spreads across his cheeks in response makes her giggle again, and on her way out of the kitchen she comes as close to skipping as she has since she was ten.

Maybe an eternity here won't be so bad after all.

-_ Fin _-


End file.
